Here's the skinny on new NHL players agreement

Summary and analysis of the terms of the new 10-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed by the NHL and NHL Players Association on Jan. 12.

NEW SALARY CAP AND FLOOR CALCULATIONS

The NHL’s have-nots often struggled to meet the salary floor under the previous CBA, which had a fixed salary cap and salary floor $16 million apart. This deal will calculate the salary cap and salary floor as a 15 percent variance from a designated midpoint, which will be based on the league’s revenue growth formula, making it easier for poor teams to fill a roster without inflating contracts.

PLAYER CONTRACT TERM LIMITSay goodbye to double-digit contract terms. The maximum is now seven years, eight if a team is re-signing its own player. Even so, the limit likely will affect few teams and players. Just 22 players currently have deals of eight years or longer.

CONTRACT VARIANCEThis is the NHL’s way of preventing more back-diving, cap-circumventing deals. For only “front-loaded” deals, salaries cannot vary more than 35 percent year to year and the lowest year’s salary cannot be less than 50 percent of the highest-paid year.

BUYOUTSIn 2013-14, the salary cap will be $64.3 million. To help ease the transition, teams will have two buyouts available to use after this season and the next.

CAP ADVANTAGE RECAPTUREThe NHL will punish teams for circumventing the salary cap. For any existing contract over six years, if the player’s career ends before the end of the deal, the team that signed him to that deal would receive a salary-cap charge equivalent to the amount of cap benefit gleaned from the structure of the deal. If the player is traded, all teams he plays for would receive a cap-hit charge were his career to end early.

ABILITY TO RETAIN SALARY IN TRADES

This should create more player movement around the league. Teams are able to retain up to 50 percent of a player’s salary in a trade, making it easier to trade players with undesirable contracts.

FREE AGENCY INTERVIEW PERIODWith the exception of this year when the first day of free agency is July 5, free agency will open July 1. The wrinkle is that teams will be able to interview unrestricted free agents from the day after the draft (but no later than June 25) until June 30, offering an opportunity to get to know a would-be new player.

RE-ENTRY WAIVERS ELIMINATEDUnder the old deal, players of a certain age, salary level or NHL experience would have to pass through re-entry waivers in order to be called up from the AHL to the NHL. Other teams could then claim the player, for half the salary and salary-cap hit. Now all AHL players can be recalled using the normal waiver process, which likely will lead to higher salaries for those on the bubble.

MINIMUM SALARY INCREASEDThis rule helps the players on the low end of the salary spectrum as the minimum NHL salary is set to rise from $525,000 this season to $650,000 in 2017-18. At the end of the CBA term in 2021-22, it will be $750,000.

INTERNATIONAL GAMESEach team is required, upon league request, to participate in one international game during the CBA term.